World Electric Vehicle Journal Vol.

4 - ISSN 2032-6653 - 2010 WEVA

Page000855

EVS25
Shenzhen, China, Nov. 5-9, 2010

Safety Design of CHAdeMO Quick Charging System

Takafumi Anegawa
Tokyo Electric Power Company
R&D Center, Mobility Technology Group
4-1, Egasaki-cho, Tsurumi-ku, Yokohama City, Japan
anegawa.takafumi@tepco.co.jp

Abstract
At present, low-output 1 to 2 kW AC electric vehicle chargers are the norm for the charging
infrastructure installed in residential areas and business offices. In order to shorten the charging times, there
is a belief that it would be best to implement changes that would increase the kW output. However, an
objective look at the conditions surrounding the charging process shows such modifications are not
necessary. There is a sufficient amount of charging time available and the upgrading of the distribution
power grid would require the installation of additional high-power electrical equipment that would
ultimately burden users.
Nevertheless, in some cases, fast charging is necessary. Hence, in order to fulfill this need, the
installation of a moderate number of quick chargers would be more effective than increasing the output of
the individual AC chargers in a halfway manner. The role of this quick-charging infrastructure would
primarily be supplementary and in order to achieve a substantial reduction in the charging time, the output
would have to be boosted up to around 50kW. Such upgrades would increase the risks associated with high
voltage electricity such as electric shocks, burn injuries and fires.
Therefore, after taking these risks into consideration, the CHAdeMO quick charger was designed so that
general users will not be exposed to any unnecessary danger when charging their EVs. A report of the
CHAdeMO quick charger design features is as follows.
Keywords: Quick charger, CHAdeMO, Infrastructure, DC charger

1. Potential risk of high power

electrical equipments
In designing a high power charger for the
general public, the potential risks involved should
be correctly recognized. Since ordinary people
from all walks of life will have access to these
quick charging infrastructures, a careful safety
design is of utmost importance.
Although your average person nonchalantly
uses electrical appliances with an output of less
than 1kW on a daily basis, having the same casual
attitude towards equipment exceeding several tens

of kW of power could potentially be a sure-fire

recipe for disaster.
In addition to the high voltage and current
levels, the potential risk connected to the threephases and the DC circuit is much higher because
the consequences of a short circuit can be much
severer than a single AC phase.
Although people are aware of the risks involved
when the speed of a moving car increases, the
dangers inherent in voltage and current increases
are not as apparent.
Therefore, in addition to safe design and
manufacturing, promoting awareness amongst
quick charger users regarding the high risks

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associated with electricity usage is also essential.

This can be likened to the precautions drivers
adhere to when pumping gas at gas stations.

2. Standardization of connecter
Discussions on the standardization of the
connecter have centered on utilizing the same
connector for outputs between 1 to 50 kW.
Given that the safety design is premised on
being able to handle maximum voltage and
current, the connecter itself must be enlarged.
Further, the design and manufacturing should be
conducted with enough margin to account for the
potential risks connected to life degradation.
On the other hand, for daily use, the connector
needs to be small, lightweight and easy-to-use.
Fulfilling these requirements in light of the
aforementioned safety margin is a challenge that
needs to be properly addressed.
Some types of EVs do not need quick chargers.
For drivers using these EVs, large connecters are
not convenient and are very costly. Integrating
low and high output into a singular connecter may
be good from a mass-production perspective, but
leaves much to be desired from other aspects.
Therefore, usage should be in accordance with the
varying risks. In other words, the connectors
should be individually designed to match the
chargers output level whether high or low.
In addition, the connecter for the quick charger
needs to be designed taking into account the
safety design of the entire charging system as it is
not possible to create an optimal connector design
independent from the design of charger system.
The following chapters will explain the safety
aspects CHAdeMO quick chargers design.

3. Design concept of CHAdeMO

quick charger
As illustrated in Figure 1, the CHAdeMO quick
charger design has a controller that receives EV
commands via a CAN bus, and the quick charger
sets the current to meet the EVs command value.
Via this mechanism, optimal and fast charging
becomes possible in response to battery
performance and the usage environment.
Figure 2 shows the internal structure of the
quick charger. In order to prevent accidental high
voltage penetration, there is a transformer
separating the power grid and the battery system.

Figure 1: EV and charger relation

The power factor corrector maintains power

grid transportation efficiency. An AC filter is
installed to remove the negative impact of higher
harmonic distortion. In the DC output lines, an LC
filter is equipped to drown out ripple noises,
which may cause lithium battery degradation.
During the charging process, an earth leakage
detector probes for potential ground faults in the
battery side of the circuit as well as the charger
side of the circuit. This equipment allows for a
thinner ground wire than the normal protection
base ground wire. From a safety perspective, thin
ground wire may generally seem like a poor
choice because it is unable to bypass high currents
in the event of a ground fault accident. However,
it is much safer than protection base thick ground
wire for current bypasses.
This is because protection ground wire must be
kept in sound condition throughout its entire
lifespan in order to be able to bypass huge
currents in the event of ground fault accidents.
However, maintaining the conditions of these
wires is very difficult due to poor installation
and/or aging degradation.
On the other hand, the earth leakage detector is
able to directly detect a ground wire disconnection
utilizing an analog signal function, at which point
the charging process is immediately shut down.
This is a typical example of how the entire
charging system design increases the safety level.

Figure 2: Internal block diagram of quick charger

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World Electric Vehicle Journal Vol. 4 - ISSN 2032-6653 - 2010 WEVA

Figure 3 illustrates the internal components of

the charger. In addition to the switching devices
such as the IGBT utilized to convert AC to DC or
to invert DC to AC, it has a separation
transformer, AC filters, a power fraction corrector,
an LC filter, a cooling fan, a control device and
sensors for the current, voltage and temperature.
Its overall size and weight are approximately
1.50.80.7m and 400kg.

Figure 5: Connector interface

4.1. Preparation for charging

Figure 3: Internal view of quick charger

4. Charging sequence
Figure 4 shows the charging process sequence
of the CHAdeMO quick charger. Figure 5 shows
the interface structure of the connector between
the quick charger and the electric vehicle. Using
both figures, I will try to explain how the charging
process works.

Figure 4: Charging sequence flowchart

An operator presses the start button of a quick

charger which initiates the charging process.
The charger closes the d1relay, and then 12V
control voltage is supplied from the charger to a
vehicle through analog pin No.2 and excites the
photo-coupler f. At that juncture, the vehicle
recognizes that the charging operation has begun,
and responds by transmitting a parameter such as
the voltage limit, maximum current and capacity
of its battery system to the charger via the CAN
bus. After the charger receives this information
and confirms that it can charge the vehicle, the
charger transmits its maximum output voltage and
maximum output current to the vehicle via the
CAN bus.
The vehicle checks its compatibility with the
charger based on transmitted data. If it does not
find any problems, it sends the permission signal
to start charging by conducting the transistor k
through analog pin No.4.
Upon receiving this, the charger recognizes that
the vehicle has given it permission to begin
charging. After the connecter is locked, it applies
a short-term voltage load to its exit circuit and
conducts a test on the circuit including the
connecter interface to confirm there are no
abnormalities such as a short circuit or ground
fault. Conducting an insulation test before each
charging is an effective means to prevent
accidents such as short circuit due to aging
degradation or the abuse of connecter cables.
When the insulation test is completed, by
closing the d2relay, the charger lets the vehicle
know that preparations for charging have been
completed through the analog pin No.10. The
vehicle recognizes this via the photo-coupler g,
and finally charging is commenced.
This is the preparation process for charging, and
actually only takes a few seconds.
It is technically possible to design a charger to

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World Electric Vehicle Journal Vol. 4 - ISSN 2032-6653 - 2010 WEVA

transmit all information that passes through via

the CAN. However, the combination of analog
communication to digital transmission improves
the safety level as follows.

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In these ways, the charger has a multiple and

diverse safety design that can stop charging in
various ways.

4.3End of Charging
a. It prevents the erroneous start of charging due
to malfunctions in the digital control system.
b. It can be confirmed that both control systems in
the vehicle and the charger are operating
correctly at each step of the operation.
c. When the analog signal is lost, the charging
operation will be shut down immediately. As
the result, shutdowns can be achieved faster
than transmitting a digital signal. An important
feature of this design is the fail-safe function.

4.2. Start of power supply

After the aforementioned procedures, the
charging controlled by the vehicle starts.
The vehicle closes the EV contactor set on the
entrance of its battery system.
After this, the vehicle calculates the current
level based on the battery performance and
circumstances, which can be charged and sends
the value to the charger every 0.1-second through
the CAN bus.
The charger supplies an electric current that
meets the value from the vehicle via constant
current control. Throughout the whole charging
process, the vehicle is monitoring its battery
condition and the current value being supplied.
When an abnormality is detected, the supply of
the current can be shut down in the following four
ways.
1. Send a zero value of output current to the
charger through the CAN bus
2. Send an error signal to the charger through
the CAN bus
3. Turn off the transistor k which sends a NO
CHARGE analog signal to the charger
4. Open the EV contactor and the block input
current
The charger monitors its condition while
charging. It monitors the current, voltage and
temperature in each subcircuit, and when any
value exceeds the limitations, the charger stops
charging and sends an error signal to the vehicle
via the CAN bus.
The charger can stop charging in the following
four ways.
1. Block the convertors gate signal
2. Block the inverters gate signal
3. Open the contactor on output lines
4. Open the breaker on input lines

The charging process is completed as follows.

First, the vehicle sends zero current signals
through the CAN bus, and then the charger stops
its output. After confirming the zero current status
of the inlet lines of the vehicle, the EV opens the
contactor and sends a prohibit signal to the
charger by switching off transistor k, and the
charger confirms that its output current is zero and
opens relay d1 and d2.
The role of relay d2 is to supply 12V control
power from the charger to the solenoid of the EV
contactor. The opening and closing of the EV
contactor is decided by the EV electric control
system and performed by the EV contactor control
relay. However, since the power of the solenoid of
the EV contactor is designed to be supplied from
the charger, the EV contactor will not accidentally
be closed due to a single failure of the EV electric
control system.
Since solenoid power cannot be supplied when
the connector is decoupled, the probability that
the EV contactor will accidentally close is very
small and this design ensures the prevention of an
inadvertent high voltage load on the socket pins.
In chapter 3, we explained that it is safe with an
earth leakage detector even though the ground
wire is thin. In the CHAdeMO quick charger, the
f, g and j signals of the photo-couplers are
lost at once even if the ground wire loses its
continuity, the charger stops charging and the EV
contactor becomes open immediately. Like this,
the pin layout of the connector should be designed
in relation to the entire charger system and safety
design. It should not be designed independently.
After the charging is finished and it has been
verified that the exit circuit voltage is below 10V,
the connector lock is opened and the charging
sequence is completed.
This is not mentioned in the sequence, analog
pin No.7 is used for detecting that the connecter is
inserted, and when the operation to get the vehicle
started is performed, current flows to the photocoupler h and vehicle ignition is prevented.
Figure 6 shows a change of the typical charging
current. After reaching the maximum voltage, the
charging current decreases gradually and then the
charging is completed.

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World Electric Vehicle Journal Vol. 4 - ISSN 2032-6653 - 2010 WEVA

Figure 6: Typical charging pattern

5. Conclusion
The CHAdeMO quick charger uses an analog
signal transmission and a digital communication
via CAN. This diverse and redundant design
ensures its safe operation.
In the design of the DC connector, in addition to
having enough safety margin such as an insulation
distance, between the power pins, four analog
signal pins, two CAN digital signal pins and one
ground pin which are implemented so that the
control signals can be transferred properly
between the vehicle and the charger.
Under a business model that utilizes quick
chargers, the certification of EVs and a billing
system will be taken into consideration. However,
since the reliability of these services are different
from the safety functions and the control charging
processes themselves, it is appropriate to separate
these systems from the charger operation control.

6. Author
Takafumi Anegawa
Tokyo Electric Power Company
R&D Center, Mobility
Technology Group
4-1, Egasaki-cho, Tsurumi-ku,
Yokohama City, Japan
Tel: ++81-45-394-6161
Fax: ++81-45-585-8576
Email:anegawa.takafumi@tepco.
co.jp
URL: chademo.com

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